I agree. I was born in 1980 and never sat in any kind of baby car seat. Most of the time I was sitting on the fold down buddy seat that was on the front bench of my parents' station wagon, lol.
I think by law a child 13 years old or younger is supposed to always be in the back seat. The it goes by age and size as to what type of child seat they need to be in. This varies by state obviously.
I was 6'2" and 220 lbs when I was 13, lol.